Mike Davis is a freelance photo editor with a resume that reads as a list of photographer dream jobs; National Geographic, The White House, The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. Now as an independent photo editor, Davis offers his services to photographers, publications and organizations. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us. This is part one of our interview, check in tomorrow for the second installment.
Johnny Simon: Describe what your history as a photo editor.
Mike Davis: Oh boy, I’ve worked in the some of the best places, most recently at the Oregonian here in Portland. Before then as the White House picture editor, not to mention Copley Newspapers in Northern Illinois where we won 29 awards in one year, including first and second place newspaper photography of the year in both editing and shooting awards. A magical environment. I’ve been a design director at the Detroit Free-Press and a picture editor at National Geographic Magazine and the Albuquerque Tribune when it was winning Best Use of Photography of the Year. I’ve been lucky. Virtually everywhere I’ve worked was among the best in the country for photography.
JS: How does your job as picture editor changed by publication or by what you’re doing? How have your responsibilities and duties changed while keeping the same title?
MD: Even now as freelance picture editor, helping photographers and organizations directly it’s really no different. The goal is to create photography that compels people to look. The systems are different, the issues related to working with coworkers and what not, is different, but the core mission, the goal is to produce work that creates a reaction. You just modify how you get there, but the standard doesn’t change.
JS: Do you find yourself approaching a story differently if it’s a daily news assignment rather than a National Geographic assignment that has been two years in the editorial process?
MD: Somebody asked me “When you teach, do you teach differently to someone who’s a beginning student as opposed to someone who’s had thirty years experience?” and the answer is yes and no.
The same is true whether it’s a National Geographic story or a daily news picture. A good parallel too is when you’re learning a language you certainly want to communicate to the extent that you can with the words that you are capable of using. Whether it’s the National Geographic or the White House, the goal is to say whatever you are capable of saying with a photograph and making it clear what that bar is. You can wander into an elementary school and make a very uninteresting photograph of what the kids are doing or you can focus on an element that speaks to how society speaks to its children, and what kind of challenges we put against them. Each of those goals produces a different photograph. So my challenge has always been to say whatever is possible to say in whatever the situation you are facing. And in the White House you can do hand shakes or you can photograph the meeting, as well as the body language of who is sitting where. Or the relationships of the meetings to the space, there are layers of meanings. So my challenge is always to exceed to what you did yesterday. Photographers should set out to do more than what they did yesterday.